


Can Life Fibers Store and Conduct Electricity?

by ArgentDandelion



Category: Kill la Kill (Anime & Manga)
Genre: Alien Biology, Alien Technology, Bacteria - Freeform, Biology, Clothing, Electricity, Gen, Life Fibers, Science, Technology, Virus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-07-30
Updated: 2019-07-30
Packaged: 2020-10-21 20:37:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20699504
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArgentDandelion/pseuds/ArgentDandelion
Summary: Explores whether Life Fibers can store and conduct electricity.





	Can Life Fibers Store and Conduct Electricity?

**Author's Note:**

> Though the article is for general audiences, Kill la Kill is itself PG-13 to R, due to blood, swearing, and nudity.

  
Most obviously, when Satsuki first puts on Junketsu, there are electrical noises and a ball lightning-esque dome.

Can Life Fibers conduct and store electricity?

They not only can, but they’d _have_ to.

##  **Can It Work Biologically?**

If Life Fibers’ biology is like that of bacteria or viruses, it’s plausible they could conduct, store, or create electricity.

Hundreds of bacteria species can make electricity. One species, _Geobacter sulfurrereducens_, can conduct electricity through well-ordered, metal-filled nanowires. Another species, _Shewanella putrefaciens_, does something similar, but unlike _G. sulfurrereducens_, can (rarely) infest humans.

Theoretically, Life Fibers could both feed off electricity and enhance hosts’ abilities with it. After all, some bacteria can both feed on and excrete electricity. The _Pseudomonas_ genus (with some infectious members) can do this, in addition to the well-studied _Geobacter_ genus.

Even if Life Fibers are more like viruses, it’s still pretty plausible: viruses can conduct electricity. Indeed, they can do so as threads: scientists made viral thread by squirting out a concentrated solution of bacteriophages, stuck together with a chemical, from a syringe. As the thread produced is roughly as strong as nylon, people could surely make clothing out of it.

##  **Can It Work Technologically?**

Assuming a Goku Uniform is made of just Life Fibers with ordinary clothing materials, Life Fibers would have to conduct and store electricity to some degree to make their abilities possible.

** _Probe Regalia_ **

Assuming no more-or-less typical computers are slotted inside Inumuta’s outfit, to transfer the Probe Regalia’s data to a presumably typical laptop, the Probe Regalia would have to store information in the electrical language of computers.

In some scenes, Inumuta uses a small device that’s a blend between a smartphone and a Game Boy. In one scene in episode 3, just before using the device his outfit has the same power sparkles Goku Uniforms show when activated, although he didn’t activate the Probe Regalia. Apparently, something about the following sequence used his Goku Uniform: perhaps the device is technically part of his uniform, and only looks like it’s made of metal.

In modern semiconductor memory, a bit (as in bits and bytes) may be represented by two levels of an electric charge stored in a capacitor. If the Probe Regalia works in the same way, it would technically have capacitor properties.

** _Blade Regalia_ **

![]

If the extra eyes in Sanageyama’s Blade Regalia actually give Sanageyama direct visual stimuli (as they surely would), it would have to convert light signals to electrical signals to work with the brain.  
While the brain also uses chemical signals, the eyes themselves carry information through electric signals, and logically the extra eyes would use the same system.

Lady Satsuki says, “With his eyes sewn shut, he’s even more in sync with his Goku Uniform” and that Sanageyama uses his Goku Uniform as his eyes, his nose, and his ears. All of those organs use nerves to carry electric signals to the brain at some point.

** _Junketsu Brainwashing_ **

Junketsu brainwashed Ryuko by inserting many happy but false memories into her mind, such as memories of a happy childhood with her mother. Junketsu-Ryuko also claims being worn by Junketsu “feels so amazing [she] can’t stand it”, and the “ultimate bliss”.

Deep-brain stimulation can both implant false memories (if only in rats so far) and cause intense, even overwhelming, feelings of pleasure.

It makes sense Junketsu is doing something like mind-stitching to cause this effect; after all, Junketsu is stitched onto everywhere else. One method of deep-brain stimulation (and the only one used in humans) uses electricity, so Junketsu could very well be electrically manipulating Ryuko and so conducting and storing electricity.

* * *

_For my friend, Aguagi. (I hope you’ll excuse the wait.)_

* * *

## Related Reading

  * [What Do Life Fibers Eat?](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/134612719746/what-do-life-fibers-eat)
  * [Required Secondary Powers of the Goku Uniforms](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/post/128375413786/required-secondary-powers-of-the-goku-uniforms)

**Author's Note:**

> Originally posted on my [Tumblr](https://argentdandelion.tumblr.com/). Feel free to comment on this article there or here.


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